Mason County PUD No. 3 has approved a moratorium on applications for service from cryptocurrency data mining companies because it wants to better understand the industry and their large power needs. Mason County PUD No. 3Courtesy

Mason County PUD No. 3 has approved a moratorium on applications for service from cryptocurrency data mining companies because it wants to better understand the industry and their large power needs. Mason County PUD No. 3Courtesy

A cryptocurrency miner wanted 10 megawatts of power. Wait just a sec, Mason County PUD said

Mason County is home to one cryptocurrency mining company — the best known cryptocurrency is bitcoin — and a marijuana grower that wants to expand into a similar business.

But when another Washington state business showed up, a cryptocurrency miner seeking 10 megawatts of power from the local utility, officials at Mason County PUD No. 3 decided to act.

On Tuesday, the PUD's three-member commission voted unanimously on a moratorium. It covers "computer or data processing loads related to virtual or cryptocurrency mining, bitcoin, Blockchain, or similar purposes," according to a news release.

In other words, the utility district won't be accepting applications for service from this type of business until it does its own due diligence.

Premium content for only $0.99

With the moratorium in place, the utility plans to better understand the fledgling industry and will hire a consultant to undertake a "cost of service" study, identifying, for example, what they should charge the data miners and whether they should ask for money upfront in the form of a deposit.

"We have to be ready for it," said utility General Manager Annette Creekpaum about the industry. "We were not completely ready and then someone started moving before we were ready to go."

The prospective customer sought almost as much power as is used by Sierra Pacific's sprawling lumber mill on Oakland Bay in Shelton. Ten megawatts also represents a significant amount of power for Mason County PUD overall, which has an average power load of 80 megawatts, enough to serve 34,000 customers.

A power request of 10 megawatts also means that the Bonneville Power Administration in Portland has to be notified, Creekpaum said.

Bitcoinmining.com describes its industry in the following way: "Miners use special software to process complex data calculations and are issued the virtual currency bitcoin in return."